What Causes Cancer? 7 Strange Cancer Claims Explained

It isn't the bra itself that causes cancer. In Dressed to Kill, Singer proposes that the reason that he and his wife, Soma Grismaijer, believe that bra-wearing is associated with breast cancer is that the pressure of a bra's cups, straps and seams slow or stop the flow of interstitial fluid (the plasma that surrounds the cells) into the lymph vessels and thenceforth through the vessels out of the breasts. Toxins - poisons, carcinogens and general cellular waste products, bacteria, and cancerous cells - are thereby retained in the breasts. As this material builds up, it poisons the cells of the breasts (just like it would do to any part of the body if it accumulated) and causes both fibrocystitis or fibrocystic breast disease and breast cancer.

Singer is more dogmatic in his interviews and other publications, perhaps overstating his case, but in the original book the mechanism of buildup of toxins is only proposed as a possibility.

It is well acknowledged that toxins, including carcinogenic substances and individual cells whose DNA has gone awry, are a source of both benign tumors and carcinomas in the rest of the body. So why would anyone be dogmatic that the same thing could not possibly happen to the breasts, and be aggravated by restriction of lymph drainage?

Many have objected to that the idea that bras put enough pressure to make any difference. However, actual investigation and experimentation has demonstrated that only a slight pressure on the breasts will completely stop lymphatic flow.

Then, holding the breasts from moving on a woman's chest has a similar effect on lymphatic flow. Stretchy bras that allow the breasts to move and change their shape as the woman moves, though they do apply pressure to the breasts, do permit some lymph flow as the breasts move around, flatten and stretch.

Another effect of bras, especially thick, nonporous and, worst, padded, is that the temperature of the breasts is elevated. The un- or loosely-covered breast is cooled by airflow and perspiration. The more coverage of the breast, the hotter it gets. Heating the breasts to a higher temperature than the chest behind it has been shown to aggravate the formation of cysts, tumors and carcinomas.

So bras negatively affect the breasts in at least three ways:

1. Pressure stopping lymph flow,

2. Restriction of breast movement relative to the chest wall, which restricts lymph drainage, and

3. Raising the temperature of the breasts,

all of which appear to induce or aggravate disease of the breast.

Another effect which while not dangerous is annoying to many women and men is that though a bra raises and shapes the breasts while it is worn, it increases sagging.

While the bra is worn it does not sag as much as when no bra is worn. However, when a bra is worn for hours every day and then removed, the breasts sag significantly more than if no bra was ever worn.

Wear as unsupporting and nonshaping a bra as you can for as little time as you can.

Al of AL 1:52PM March 16, 2012